September 1956 Algiers bombings

The September 1956 Algiers bombings were three coordinated bomb attacks that occurred in the city of Algiers, Algeria on 30 September 1956. The attacks were carried out by the FLN in response to the Rue de Thebes bombing, which had been carried out by angry French citizens against innocent Muslims in the Casbah. The bombings targeted the Rue d'Isly milk bar, the Rue Michelet cafe, and the Rue Mauritania Air France office, popular destinations for the French pied noirs, and they killed 3 people and wounded 50. The attack targeted civilians, and it set a precedent for more attacks to come. The bombings were some of the first actions of the Battle of Algiers, and 4,600 French paratroopers under Jacques Massu arrived in Algiers in January 1957 to quell the violence started by the bombings.

Background
In June of 1956, the FLN carried out a wave of attacks against the French Army in Algiers in response to the guillotining of several convicted FLN murderers, with FLN leader Larbi Ben M'hidi sending the Algiers FLN cell leader Saadi Yacef to conduct guerrilla warfare against the French. Yacef recruited Ali La Pointe, a former criminal, to carry out the revenge attacks on the French without targeting women or children. From 21 to 24 June 1956, 49 Frenchmen were killed, all of them either police or soldiers. On 10 August, angered pied noirs set a bomb at the Rue de Thebes where three of the alleged FLN murderers in the June attacks lived, killing 70 people and destroying three neighboring houses. Larbi Ben M'hidi believed that this attack changed the rules of the war, and he instructed Yacef and his 1,400 FLN men and women to prepare for a major offensive against the French, both civilians and soldiers.

Bombings
Yacef chose Zohra Drif, Djamila Bouhired, and Samia Lakhdari to deliver bombs to various locations in Algiers in response to the Casbah bombing of 10 August. Lakhdari was sent to bomb the milk bar on the Rue d'Isly, Bouhired to bomb the Air France office on Rue Mauritania, and Drif to bomb the cafe on Rue Michelet, all of them popular destinations for the pied noirs. The women went through separate checkpoints, with Drif and Lakhdari wearing their hair in Parisian styles and using their youthful beauty to pass by the French Army troops; Drif actually exchanged flirtations with one of the zouaves guarding her checkpoint. Lakhdari was also the subject of flirting by a French soldier, and she rejected his offer to go to the beach with her, as she claimed that she was meeting friends there. Bouhired's attempt at looking French did not work out, so she took her son with her to make her look like an innocent mother, and the French allowed for her to pass through the checkpoint.



The three bombers headed to their destinations, slipping their bags under chairs or tables before leaving. Drif was disheartened when she saw women and children returning from the beach to the cafe, but she remembered that women and children were killed in the Casbah bombing, and she ordered a soft drink and left after paying the cashier. Lakhdari declined an invitation to dance at the cafeteria, slipping her bag under a chair and leaving. After the bombers left, the explosions occurred at the cafe and milk bar, but a faulty timer on the Air France bomb led to the failure of that attack. The cafe and milk bar bombings killed 3 people and wounded 50, avenging the casbah bombing.

Aftermath
The September 1956 Algiers bombings opened a new chapter in the history of the Algerian War, as it set a precedent that would be followed by both French vigilantes and Algerian rebels. Civilians and soldiers were fair game for terrorist attacks, and 4,600 French paratroopers under General Jacques Massu arrived in Algiers in January 1957 to assist the hapless 1,500 French policemen in Algiers, who had to sort through a population of 400,000 people to find the FLN members. The Battle of Algiers would begin that year, with the French military clamping down on the FLN and nearly wiping them out.